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Show CHAPTER VI WATER: INSTITUTIONS, MANAGEMENT, AND DEVELOPMENT, 1906 THROUGH 1921 Introduction During the first decade of statehood, Utah's lawmakers and officials had concentrated their water management efforts toward developing an administrative and regulatory framework that defined the state's control over the process of water appropriation and the definition and allocation of water rights. The water rights law of 1903 was the culmination of these efforts, and it has become the basis for current water law. The administrative framework of the State Engineer's Office and the developmental framework of the Board of Land Commissioners provided a foundation that assisted the state and its citizens in the work of reclaiming water resources and the arid lands in earnest. During the 1906 through 1921 period, the growth in the amount of water use, land entry, population, and manufacturing continued. Evidence of this increase in water demand is shown by the fact the State Engineer's Office received thousands of water right applications and approved construction plans for a total of eighty- nine dams between 1906 and 1921.1 The state's water management institutions had to meet these growing demands. These increasing demands on the resources of the state are reflected in Table 2, which lists irrigated acreage for the Utah area from 1850 to 1950. Also listed are the population figures and the value of the output of Utah's manufacturing industries. These figures suggest that the demands for urban and industrial water use, in addition to the growing agricultural use, were placing ever greater burdens on Utah's water supplies during the time period under discussion. ! Refer to Table 3, Chapter 6, p 70. |
